


Just a Sugar Cube

by ScarfyTheShipster



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Character Study, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Horses, Lorenz is a horse boy I will not budge on this, Platonic Relationships, Slice of Life, could also be seen as pre ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:29:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29889435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarfyTheShipster/pseuds/ScarfyTheShipster
Summary: Lorenz learns he’s happier with himself, and others with him, when he isn’t trying to ask girls on a date. A look at a different kind of love.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund & Lorenz Hellman Gloucester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Just a Sugar Cube

Love. Love, the word that both lured and spurned him, the word all poets played with in ink and tongue and knew the taste inside and out, yet it vexed him.

The stinging smart of rejection had been only verbal, but still his cheeks were threatening to redden as he strode away from the girl in question, feet carrying him anywhere but the monastery cathedral and the gaggle of giggling girls he left in his wake. Onlookers could think— did think, he prayed to the Goddess above— that his strides were long and hurried as a result of determination rather than that horrid pitfall he found himself in. After all, a noble was never ridiculed; embarrassment was an emotion for lesser men. 

“Why?” he muttered, lost in his thoughts. Faces around him blurred out of focus and into the background as he walked. His intentions were pure, he was doing everything he had been told to do, was supposed to do. Certainly a childhood full of tutors and etiquette lessons hadn’t created anything less than a perfect gentleman. To add fuel to his shame, he could still hear his last conversation with Professor Byleth echoing in his mind’s ear, how ladies managed to, reportedly, find him annoying. He, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester?

He found himself at a destination: the stables. Lorenz sighed, looking around for anyone to speak with. Perhaps it was for the best that there was no one he knew there as he grappled with his turmoil. 

Lorenz closed his eyes, sighing deeply. It would be most improper to let such a matter cloud his mood or judgement. There was always work to be done, training to hone his skills. He let himself into the stables, warmly sunlit and perpetually somewhat dusty with sawdust kicked up by boots and hooves. Horses and hay weren’t his favorite scent, the perfumed gardens of his estate were far more a noble’s preferred surroundings, but his horse could not help being a horse. His mount was waiting for him, head sticking out of her stall as she sniffed expectedly.

“Hello, Cirrus.” Lorenz stroked his mare’s nose, a smile blooming on his face despite his previously soured state. Fódlan’s horses had thick coats and tended to grow long manes, making them exceptionally fluffy to pet (and a hassle to groom). Cirrus had been his horse for years, a bit of familiarity away from home, white and light grey like a stroke of paint off the palette of the sky itself. She nosed his chest with a gentle bump and Lorenz rewarded her with a light scratch behind her ears, fingers shallowly meshing with strands of mane. “You’re one of the few girls here who doesn’t mind my company.” Cirrus swished her tail. Lorenz wondered exactly what sort of commentary that was. “Do you think it’s my fault?”

A hot gust of wind to his face was his answer, Cirrus’s breath blowing his uneven bangs back off of his forehead. Grimacing with his eyes squeezed shut, Lorenz blindly patted his bangs back down. “Please, we’ve talked about this…”

He’d thought he was alone except for the horses or perhaps a stray stablehand, but a few soft, halting footsteps alerted him to someone a few yards away. Lorenz turned, still with a hand on his forehead. “Oh—“

“Sorry. People don’t usually come in here this time of day,” she murmured, eyes already sliding off of Lorenz and to the lower, people-free view of stall doors and scattered footprints on the floor of traffic long gone.

“Marianne, it’s alright. Your company is appreciated, as always.” Lorenz relaxed, tension dropping from his shoulders just by being in her presence. They weren’t close, but her quiet, inadvertent grace put him at ease. He supposed that was why she had such a way with animals.

Not that he was an animal.

Cirrus licked his cheek. 

“Ack!” Lorenz stepped out of range from Cirrus’s playful gestures. He dug around in his pockets for a handkerchief, hurriedly wiping his face. Out of curiosity, he glanced towards Marianne, dreading her reaction. 

Marianne’s hand was covering her mouth, but her bright eyes and telltale creases of joy betrayed her inaudible laughter. However, it wasn’t like the mocking laughter of the girls Lorenz had fled in the last hour, gleeful to chase his unfortunate attempt at a dinner date off. Nothing about it burned, and despite his disdain for being disheveled, Lorenz huffed once with laughter too. 

“I’ve gotten that too,” said Marianne, stepping closer to Cirrus. She reached up and patted Cirrus’s cheek with all the tenderness of an old friend, like Cirrus was her horse instead. “She’s a friend of Dorte’s.” She stopped speaking for a beat, grimacing. “That was odd to say. I’m sorry.”

“No, not at all.” Lorenz joined her, hand lightly on his horse’s neck. “If a mount can be our companion, it stands to reason they can be each other’s companions.” Cirrus was happy to be spoiled by two people, nosing at Marianne to encourage her to keep petting her. 

They were quiet for a few moments. Peaceful. There was something special about sharing an experience. It didn’t need words, just to be at someone’s side. Marianne spoke, soft as usual, but warmer, perhaps more herself. It was a side Lorenz rarely, if ever, saw. “She really likes you. You take good care of her.”

“Thank you. I do my best for her.”

“She does say that you don’t bring enough sugar cubes, because after you’ve had tea you smell sweet. It makes her jealous.”

Lorenz raised his eyebrows. It was difficult to tell if Marianne was kidding or not, but he took it in stride. “I suppose I do have scones or tea cakes from time to time with my tea. I had no idea she would want for sugar so much.”

Marianne smiled. “Here.” She opened her pocket and held out a small sugar cube to Lorenz. “Take it, before she does.”

“I’ve been licked once today. What’s one more time?” he said cheerfully. Lorenz let the cube roll from Marianne’s palm to his like a six sided die, cupping it delicately. Cirrus wasted no time in lapping it up. 

They exchanged a glance. Another moment, something sweet, something shared. Lorenz’s spirit was lighter than it had been in weeks. Perhaps, truly, taking a break to find joy in life was beneficial not only to work, but he himself. “I should do this more often,” he said.

Marianne blinked. “You mean you don’t? I, oh, I suppose since you’re so close, I thought I might have just not seen you around.”

“We are close.” Lorenz looked into Cirrus’s eye that was directed towards him, round and deep brown. “I’ve had her for about five years, from a foal. I suppose I get distracted from what genuinely makes me feel happy. It’s always pushed to the side for my duties. Of course, that’s how it is for most students, but it isn’t anything to feel guilty over, having a sugar cube once in awhile.”

“I never knew that about you.” Marianne suddenly widened her eyes and turned back towards Cirrus rather than Lorenz. “You seem like you’re confident… but I shouldn’t just say things—“

“You’re right. I mean, I’m glad to be dedicated to my work as heir to House Gloucester, but it’s like the difference between boasting about having gardens of roses or loving to actually smell them and enjoy them yourself. I, well I guess I mean to say thank you.” 

“It was just a sugar cube,” she mumbled.

“Thank you for showing me I should relax a little more, and remember what’s important.” 

Marianne nodded slightly. “Like friends.”

“Yes.”

She hesitated. “Are we friends?”

Lorenz swallowed. Their conversations in the past had never gone this far. He had to tread lightly. “Well, I’d like to be. I enjoy your company. Truly.”

Marianne didn’t seem convinced, but she didn’t leave. That was a start.

He continued on, hopeful. “Would you like to have tea sometime? Cirrus can evidently vouch for the quality of scones I prefer.” Asking girls to tea or dinner was how his initial poor day had started, and Lorenz quickly specified, “...as friends. I don’t mean anything else by it.”

“Oh. Well. Um.”

“If you don’t want to, that’s fine.” Maybe such a sentence could save him heartache in the future. “I know I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation, I apologize, I realize I shouldn’t h—“

“I don’t really want to have tea with anyone. But… I’d be comfortable if we met here again.” Marianne’s hands were folded, thumbs worrying over each other with anxiety. “Is that okay?”

More time together with their horses, away from others. The stables never were, or would be, his favorite spot in the monastery, but Lorenz could see himself spending much more time around there. “Certainly.”

“Really? You want to?”

He nodded, smiling and pleased. “If I can bring my scones with me, it’d be nice to share them with a friend.” 

Marianne couldn’t quite meet his eyes head on, but even as she looked more downwards than anywhere else, Lorenz could hear something like a smile. “Sure. With a friend.”

Lorenz wondered, as Marianne left to go find Dorte, if the warm, contented sensation in his chest was a better idea of love after all.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is flatescardos! Thank you for reading <3


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